nearly half of the silver that is mined globally is used by industries. >> it's being used increasingly in biomedical, in high tech, environmental for water purification, in hospitals as an antiseptic. so it's not just the old traditional smokestack industries and electronics that are using silver. it does really have very, very wide versatility. >> reporter: but what about the outlook for precious metals next year? a lot depends on what happens to the global economy and whether the u.s. falls off the fiscal cliff. if the cliff is averted... >> then i think you will see silver, platinum, palladium-- the so-called white metals-- outperform gold, because they will tend to outperform in a risk-on environment in a cyclical upturn. >> reporter: now, the other scenario: >> in an environment where we go off the fiscal cliff and we see continued problems on the debt side for the u.s., i think the gold price outperforms the white metals. >> reporter: gold's price will also depend on whether central banks continue to diversify their holdings into gold, and whether they implement more quantitative